


What lurks in the abyss

by Cirilla9



Category: Ai no Kusabi
Genre: Creepy, Dubious Morality, Dubious Science, Dystopia, Genetically Engineered Beings, Horror, M/M, No Smut, Non-Consensual, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 21:42:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12591148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cirilla9/pseuds/Cirilla9
Summary: Takes part when Iason claims Riki as his pet for the first time. A short Halloween fic, with all the horrors Tanagura has to offer.





	What lurks in the abyss

**Author's Note:**

> Have you seen this mermaid? Seriously, Raoul, what are you creating? Sirens are supposed to seduce mariners with their charm, not hunt them vampire style. 
> 
> Just ignore me, go and read for yourself.

Riki walked on the tiptoes, trying to hold his breath as much as possible with his heart racing as the fastest speeder. The large hall was pitch black but the lack of light was never a problem to an inhabitant of Ceres where electricity worked only occasionally.

Far more thrilling was what he could encounter here. The doors had been locked, he had to hack them using some of Katze’s devices in order to enter - and locked doors always, in each social class, meant secrets.

Tanagura’s mysteries could be terrifying but Riki’s curiosity far outweighed his fear (which he would never admit, even to himself, to feeling right now) and he was determined to unravel what they had been hiding in here.

So he crossed the smooth polished floor, straining his eyes to see anything in the darkness and keeping his ears open to the smallest rustle.

Suddenly he felt observed, like someone else was there with him, following his every movement. He looked around anxiously but there was nothing he could distinguish from the darkness surrounding him. Yet the feeling of someone’s eyes upon him remained. Instincts sharpened in the slums made his body tense and alert, ready to fight or flight at any moment.  

He kept looking around but there was absolutely nothing, no eyes lit in the blackness, no breath of the beast could be heard. He even looked up, remembering how once he saw winged angels at the pet auction he and his gang had illegally crept in in Midas, yet there was nothing floating under the ceiling either.

With his head darted up he froze, taken by a sudden premonition, then slowly lowered his head, looking down. It all made sense now, the lack of cages in the room, the absence of chains rattling sounds – that wasn’t how they kept what lived here locked.

There, under his feet, below the floor, a pair of eyes surrounded by flowing hair stared at him. It wasn’t a cage, it wasn’t an arena; it was a giant aquarium. The floor wasn’t marble or tiled, it was colored glass and Riki stood at the lid of a fish tank. Only what stared at him was definitely not a fish.

For one terrible moment of infinity they looked at each other and Riki had a very unpleasant feeling it was like the eye contest between a snake and a mouse, only he was the mouse. He felt paralyzed by the unearthly stare, he felt helpless and unable to move as he watched the beast shift minutely like a cat preparing for a jump.

Then, almost faster than human sight could register, the creature did jump, opening her mouth at the same time, showing too many sharpened teeth. Riki run.

Behind him a thud noise reverberated as the beast hit the glass from the underside, in the place where he had stood a moment ago. He kept running, hunted by the image of triple row of spike-like teeth bared at him.

Then two things happened at the same time almost. He bumped at some obstacle on his way and would have fallen if not the arms steadying him. Too scared to think properly he only trashed to free himself, turning and craning his neck to look at his attacker’s progress and with dread he saw the monster approaching him too quickly while his escape route was blocked.

He cringed internally thinking it’d be his end when the intense light flowed the room and he saw the mermaid flinch at the intensity of it. Squirming as if it hurt her physically, she turned back and swam away, disappearing into the safety of deep black abyss of waters below.

Only now realizing his position, Riki quickly entangled himself from the arms of his savior and stepped backward to stop clinging to the said person. He cooled his face into the best haughty scowl he could manage and cast an unfriendly glance at someone he was indebted to now.

His mouth fell open as he saw the same Blondie that had encountered him into Midas before.

\- Iason, - he blurted, - what are you doing here?

The Elite chuckled softly.

\- Ah, the charming manners of the slums. Simple ‘thank you’ would be suitable at the beginning instead of questioning me. Or are you planning to repay this debt of gratitude in the same way as you did with the previous one?

\- I didn’t need your help now.

\- No? You’ve looked like you were running for dear life.

Riki colored slightly, ashamed, looking away from the intense blue gaze that seemed to read all his unrests.

\- Your fears weren’t that exaggerated, - continued the Elite calmly. – This specie is carnivorous and we feed it with the high protein fodder. You must have looked like a snack to her so your instincts told you right.

Riki looked at him again, wide-eyed, searching for any deception, but there was not a trace of lie in that perfect doll face. Riki felt his hackles standing on an end.

\- So you feed it with the worn out pets or something? – he tried a joke to ease the tension but when the Blondie didn’t contradict, it became even worse.

\- Recycling is one of the basis in proper economy.

Quite spooked now Riki shifted uneasily.

\- Can we go out of here?

\- Of course.

Riki didn’t like that smirk curling Iason’s lips. As it turned out - rightfully.

\- You’re coming with me, - announced the Blondie casually.

Riki didn’t like his tone either.

\- Oh? To where exactly? I didn’t agree to another sex-for-pay deal.

\- You didn’t have to. I already decided to make you my pet. From that shocked expression I take it Katze didn’t give you an advance notice. Hmmpf, perhaps it’s for the better we met without his arrangements. It makes things clearer.

\- What the fuck are you talking about? – Riki felt another fear raising in him, this one less otherworldly but maybe even more distressing. The premonition of something terrible yet all too real; the long-termed continuous distress instead of a moment’s sharp pain.

\- I’m taking you with me, - explained Iason patiently. – To Tanagura where you’ll serve me as my pet. I’m sure you saw them on auctions before, so you should have the general idea but I’ll teach you all the technicalities myself.

\- What? – Riki had the vague thought he was talking it on a continuous repeat but he didn’t care right now. – I’m not going there!

He made a step backward, struggling internally to make a choice between the two monsters, decide from which one of them should he run away in the first place.

Android’s hand grabbed him by the arm and held bruisingly firm. Iason stilled him in place without any visible effort.

\- Humans have the fitting adage for it, I believe. Curiosity killed a cat, that’s what you say, right? Be glad it didn’t happen to you literally, when you were teasing the mermaid.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Creepy mermaids, creepy Iasons, and the slumdog as the only one normal among it all. Hope you liked it ;)


End file.
